FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

President Putin Gives Insights on Relations with Trump and Iran at St. Petersburg Forum

May 31, 2018 (EIRNS)—President Vladimir Putin made the following remarks on May 25 during the dialogue following his speech to the plenary at May 24-26 St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. The translation, posted on the Kremlin website, include these interesting insights:

“We cannot be satisfied with the level and nature of Russia-U.S. relations. We are ready for this dialogue. Mr. Trump suggested having a meeting specifically on the issue but we have not had a chance to have it yet, there have been too many issues to address. However, we are ready to have a substantive dialogue on a great number of issues. I think it is high time we did this. Donald has expressed concern over a potential new arms race and I fully agree with him....

“As concerns [French President Emmanuel Macron’s statement on] the United States and the U.S. President losing by withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, I will talk this over with the French President. I do not think so. I do not think that President Trump lost. First of all, because he is fulfilling his election obligations. And in that, he has won in his domestic policy, to a certain extent. However, if the deal gets completely ruined after all, many will indeed lose. We must do everything we can to prevent this from happening.

“Of course, this requires working with all participants, first and foremost, with the United States. Why? Because—let me take you behind the scenes of this deal—the main dialogue took place between the U.S. and Iran. The other participants in the talks only adjusted the process slightly, including Russia. I am not going to hide this, we often did it to protect Iran’s interests. Eventually, after rather extensive bilateral talks between Iran and the U.S., everybody reached a compromise. This means that, despite all the difficulties, the two countries managed to agree.

“Even now, the U.S. President is not closing the door on talks. He is saying that he is not happy about many of the terms of the deal. But in general, he is not ruling out an agreement with Iran. But it can only be a two-way street. Therefore, there is no need for unnecessary pressure if we want to preserve something. Doors must be left open for negotiation and for the final outcome. I think there are still grounds for hope.”